James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

I got there a little before sunrise and leaned on a concrete wall, which served as a taboret for my watercolors. The first rays of orange sunlight illuminated the smoke from the donut and kettle corn vendors, while cool blue skylight filtered down through the spaces between the overpasses.

Here are three steps in the process. I was thinking about warm vs. cool and light vs. dark, trying to get the big shapes established first before worrying about the smaller details.

Here's an ultra close-up of an area the size of a quarter to show how I abstracted it. Note a few dots of yellow-white gouache.

Next to me was a guy who carved sculptures from driftwood. He had Miles Davis playing on his boombox, which set the perfect mood.

12 comments:

Thanks for another great sketch and the insight into your method. I love the in-process shots. They're a nice alternative to the short videos, which are great too. I know it's a lot of work (probably too much to ask), but combining the two - if/when possible - would provide the advantages of each.

Amazing scene. was that a farmer market where usually farmers sell their products directly to the consumer? I read that in America it's an ancient tradition, mutuated by English settlers. It's interesting to see one with such an anachronistic cover :)

I love all of your work (I've actually been rereading all the Dinotopia books over the past few days as inspiration for a project), but I have to say - I think my favorite things that you post are always your on-the-spot sketches and watercolors. Would you ever consider gathering those into an art book? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would want one...

Gina, Yes, I very much want to do books, videos, and iBooks on the plein air work. Each medium offers different opportunities. It's just a matter of finding time for everything.

Anonymous -- glad you remembered that picture from Artist's Guide. Overpasses make such wonderful subjects that I'm surprised more artists don't paint them.

Emanuele, I always assumed that urban markets where farmers bring in their harvest were worldwide universals. Anyway, they have become more and more popular in big American cities like New York and Baltimore. A lot of small farmers depend on them.

I've always been very intriuged by the suggestion of details. The people, their clothes, their actions, the tents, food, everything is wrapped up into this little bundle with a few carefully placed strokes of a brush. You do this especially well in your sketches, and it is wonderful to see close ups of this, just to marvel at... In An Artist's Guide to Sketching you touch on the subject, I was wondering if you could do a post or series on this? Or if you already have, maybe a link?

Sadly, they are not so widespread :( In Sicily, the region where i spent most of my life, they slowly died and we do have now a weekly market but the farmers don't sell their products there anymore, they mostly sell clothes. Farmers rather to sell to wallmart-like entities and supermarkets, or to have people come directly to them. This is mainly due to the unfair competition coming from Africa, the recession and the peak oil. We also had some political movements recently born because of these changes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Sicilian_protests).